Interview With a Neighbour
by HappilyBlue
Summary: How did Harry get his bad reputation at Privet Drive? This is an outsiders point of view on the Dursley household.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: i do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. **

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><p>How did Harry get his reputation of being a criminal while he lived at Privet Drive? There were a lot of nosy neighbours on that street, so we chose to talk to the one closest to the Dursleys. This woman lived at Number 6, Privet Drive, and was asked to tell everything she had ever heard about the Dursleys.<p>

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><p>Well, the Dursleys had been a perfectly normal family when they had first moved into privet drive as a newly married couple. I remember that they were very young when they had their son, but they were very friendly, and desperate to fit in with us, Mrs Dursley especially.<p>

The Dursleys son, Dudley, was a little bit of a terror, but then children are at that age. I was always assured by them that he would soon grow out of it, although i was a little less convinced when i saw Dudley kicking Petunia whilst screaming for sweets! at one year old!

There was a really strange day that stands out in particular. I remember that there was a couple of gas explosions, owls were seen in broad daylight! I must admit I had never seen an owl at nighttime before then, and have only ever seen brief glimpses of an owl since. The day after, i was awoken by someone screaming next door, because apparently the Dursleys nephew had arrived, having just being left on the doorstep. Well you can imagine the kind of scandal it caused when Mrs Dursleys sister was killed because of drunken driving accident. It's no wonder she was so desperate to fit in with us if she had to put up with that sort of behaviour at home.

Their nephew, Harry Potter his name was, grew up to be a bit of a terror, despite where he was being raised. My Jessica-Ann used to come home with all sorts of stories about the types of things he had done at school, and there was always shouting coming from that house.

I remember one time, when Jess came home from school telling me about how he had somehow managed to turn his teachers hair blue. Of course I scolded her for making up such wild tales, but then I asked Mrs Dursley and she had told me that she didn't know how he had done it, and that it might have been some kind of cruel prank, but it was true.

Something that didn't quite add up, was that despite the fact that he was a rogue child, the Dursleys were not particularly nice to him. I went along to Dudleys 5th birthday party once, because Jess had received an invite. During a game of musical statues a rather large woman went and hit him across his legs with her walking stick, when he hadn't even done anything wrong. They always seemed to spoil Dudley a bit, every year loads of people got invited to Dudleys birthday party and always got loads of presents, but as far as I'm aware, Harry never got much, if anything at all.

Another time my Jessica-Ann had come home telling me that the boy had been found on the school roof, and the caretaker had to get the stepladders to get him back down. Again I told her off for telling silly stories, there was no possible way he would have been able to get up there. But then a friend from her class, Amy, told me that she had seen him too. Once again I asked Mrs Dursley and she had snapped at me that it was true as well. I didn't appreciate being snapped at, but then I realised that she was probably embarrassed about raising such an unfortunate child. Although her Dudley was no angel if the other stories about that family are true.

I also remember once, looking out of the kitchen window, and seeing the boy stuck up the tree in their garden. I thought he was some sort of peeping-tom trying to look into our house, so went closer to have a look. It appeared that he was actually stuck, and then I saw the Durselys, a large woman and dog in the garden. I just assumed that the boy had got up there to show off for the visitors, (probably to show off how he had climbed the school roof) and had either got himself stuck or was simply refusing to come down.

I don't blame them, I wouldn't have gone up that tree after him, and Mr Dursley didn't look in the right shape to do so.

Then I remember, it must have been a birthday or something because there were a lot of large parcels delivered to the house. The family went on an outing of some sort, which didn't usually happen I must add, but I remember them arriving home and the boys shouting about how some snake nearly attacked them. Indeed when I was watering my forget-me-nots I caught them in the Dursley back garden re-enacting it with loud voices and Dudley and his friend were pretending that the hosepipe was a snake, and one of them was pretending to be Harry and save each other from it. I must admit it did make me laugh.

Although the Dursley child was not all that pleasant of a boy as he grew up. I was crossing the road to visit the shop and he zoomed past me on that bike. Nearly hit me he did and I heard him shout at me to watch where I was going! I even witnessed him mow down old Mrs Figg as she crossed the road on her crutches, he didn't even stop to help her up. That was the summer I didn't see the potter boy for quite some time, and Jess told me that he hadn't been at school either.

I was told by petunia that the boy had had a serious bout of hay fever, and wasn't well enough to attend school. During the summer holidays, when he was around, I would often see him walking around by himself, I did feel a bit sorry for him, but tried not to pay too much attention because he was, apparently, a bit of a rogue child. Although Dudley was no better in his teenage years from what I can remember.

They returned after a few days, carrying some strange looking packages, and I could have sworn that I saw the Potter boy carry a caged owl into the house. This took me years back to when all those owls were seen flying around in broad daylight! It must just have been a trick of the light I think, because when I looked back neither owl nor boy were there. He did look much happier than I have ever seen him before though.

The next month was very quiet concerning number 4, although both Dudley and Harry were soon to be off at a boarding school for the year. Dudley was to attend a school called Smeltings, I think, and Harry was going to some sort of criminal school, St Brutus' or something. I thought it was a bit rash, the boy isn't a criminal, but then I thought that it was better to be safe than sorry, I don't know half of the stuff that the boy has gotten himself into. He could have done something really bad for all I know!

Dudley came back at both Christmas and Easter, but there was no sign of the Potter boy until the next summer.

As far as I am aware, his arrival was not particularly welcomed in the house. There was raised voices continually, I couldn't always hear what was being said, but one time I could swear he was talking about keeping something quiet, to stop secret messages being sent. Well I was completely baffled at that, not that it was my place to ask at all.

Also from what I heard, Harry had once tried to threaten Dudley, and that the Dursleys refused to tolerate some kind of abnormality. I thought to myself that this abnormality must be the reason he goes to that criminal school, I knew that there must have been some reason for sending the boy there.

I glanced through the back window once, and I saw the potter boy sat on the garden bench, facing the hedgerow. I watched Dudley walk out and try to talk to him, then he stumbled quickly back towards the house, screaming that he was _"doing you know what."_ I watched Petunia come out the house and aim a heavy blow at Harry with a soapy frying pan, and his punishment was to work the garden. He was there all day, and I must say even though it was harsh, it was probably necessary, because I had not heard what he had said to Dudley. It must not have been very pleasant to earn such a punishment. A couple of hours later, an almighty crashing noise sounded from next door, followed by the sound of women screaming, and then a second woman ran from the house, screaming something about 'lunatics.'

The boy must have done something really terrible this time, because the next day Mr Dursley paid a man to fit prison bars upon what I would assume to be the boys bedroom window.

A few days later, after more shouting and yelling in the middle of the night, the bars on the window had disappeared, along with the boy. I asked about it and Petunia said that some of his criminal friends came in the middle of the night and sprung him out of there.

I didn't see the Potter boy again until the next summer.

The Dursleys are forever boasting about themselves, especially when that new company car arrived on their drive, but most people in this area are like that, so I can't really complain. They should have boasted about it a bit louder, I think there might have been some people a couple of streets away that didn't hear them that day. Petunia was recently complaining to me about the school the Dudley goes to, and how worried she gets about him, and wondering if he is getting along alright. I didn't tell her this, but I think Dudley gets along just fine. If he is at all bullied about his obvious and horrid weight problem, he and his friends will use their fists to sort it out no problem.

The Potter boy came home, and, once more, was greeted by lots of arguing and shouting. Apparently, one of his friends from that criminal school telephoned the house, and well I assume Mr Dursley was threatened or something when he refused to hand over the phone, I wouldn't be surprised considering the history of the Potter boy. I heard him shout that the person was not to come near his family, and that Harry was not to give the number out to anymore people like him.

Perhaps the biggest news of the summer was that escaped criminal; someone called 'Serious Black' or something or other. Although on the news he looked more deranged and unstable than serious, a dangerous combination in an armed man, and added to that fact that no-one seemed to know where he had escaped from, or how he had managed to get his hands on a gun. They never did find out what happened to him, I don't think he was ever caught.

I know that half of the women were worried that the potter boy might end up like that, Petunia had already told us that he was dangerous and went to a criminal school, so he was headed in that direction. Oh I would love to be the one to dial the hotline number; I can almost imagine it now.

A week later, there was an almighty commotion in the Dursley household, involving lots of shouting and screaming, followed by the slamming of the front door. The next thing I saw, well I say I saw it, but it really can't have been possible for a group of strangely clothed people to turn up on their doorstep within moments of all of this.

I say it wasn't possible, because there was at least 4 of them, and they couldn't have walked to get there on time, but there was no car or any kind of transport visible. I presume they were the police coming to take the potter boy away, because I didn't see him again until the next summer.

I never really got to the cause of all the commotion on that night, all I know is that they had an argument, that must have gotten violent at some point because I saw Mr Dursley limping around for a few days afterwards.

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><p><strong>AN: This was supposed to be a one shot, but the story was getting longer than i had originally thought, so i decided to split it in half. The second half should be up within the next couple of weeks :) let me know what you thought about it :) **


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: i do not own Harry Potter, and have never pretended otherwise :) these are just borrowed :)**

**This is the point of view of a nosy next door neighbour, discussing harry's summer visits to the dursleys through her own eyes and eavesdropping skills :) this chapter focuses on Goblet of Fire up to the Half Blood Prince. **

Interview with the neighbour's part 2.

The next summer was a strange one as well, I saw that there were all sorts of strange and exotic looking birds coming and going from the one window in the house, most likely the potter boy's room. I doubt Petunia knew about it, if she did she turned a blind eye, because I know that she hated animals, I remember when she took Dudley to the park once when he was small and she would not let him go anywhere near our neighbours dog, and she told me then how much she disliked them.

There were many arguments that followed the return of the two boys from school, and for once, they didn't seem to be about Harry. From what I could gather, Petunia was attempting to get Dudley to follow a diet. I would say he was beyond due for one, he was always a huge kid growing up, the trouble was, he was growing wider faster than he was growing up tall, and width overtook.

The potter boy left in an extremely unusual way once again. There I was sat in my living room reading my book, when I heard a loud voice talking. It seemed like they were almost (but not quite) in the room with me, so naturally I stopped reading to listen to them.

They said something about there not being enough room, and to go back quickly and tell the others not to come. Which I thought was very strange as their house had plenty of room, and again there was no extra car, bike or anything in the drive to suggest that they had visitors.

Another voice seemed to join the others, and, up until now I had thought that they might have just left the T.V on really loudly, but the sudden explosion that came through to my house was enough to rattle my teacup and cause the lights to flicker. Then I knew that this had to be for real. There was a brief period where I couldn't hear anything, and then, all of a sudden I hear Petunia screaming, a man who wasn't Mr Dursley yelling, along with Mr Dursley himself. This was followed by the sound of lots of crashing china.

After the noise had calmed down a bit, I went around to their house to check that everything was alright, only to be greeted by a very grey and dusty looking Mr Dursley. He insisted that everything was fine, and when I asked about the explosions I was just told that the potter boy had been causing more trouble and decided to put some sort of explosives in the fireplace, causing the mess and there was a red haired man who seemed to be helping them clean up. He told me that he had taken Harry away, and not to see him again until next summer.

Dudley came home next summer, and the Dursleys spent every minute of their time making sure that everyone knew that Dudley had been given some sort of boxing champion. I wasn't too impressed truth be told, they worshipped the ground that their son walked on, when he spent most of his time destroying the children's play park and throwing stones at people. He threw a stone at my car once, so I went and complained to his parents, who completely denied him doing anything of the sort, saying that he was having tea at a friend's house. I didn't believe a single word of it, having seen Dudley and his friend's destructiveness with my own eyes.

The summer of 1995 was a hot one, although there was a particularly strange event that occurred that summer. I was trying desperately to do something with the plants in the front garden without using the hose or watering can, due to the hosepipe ban that had been implemented, when there came an almighty BANG! which resounded down the street. I stood up and curiously peered over the hedge, when I saw Mr Dursley struggling to get his hands on the potter boy, who was stood with a defiant expression outside the Dursleys open window.

Mr Dursley said it was a car backfiring, but I could tell from the look on his face, that it wasn't. From what I could tell, the potter boy had set off some kind of rocket noise from underneath the window, as some kind of annoying prank to annoy the Dursleys.

Around about half an hour later, I was just going outside to collect my gardening things which I had accidentally left outside, when it suddenly went dark. I thought perhaps that I had not noticed the time, but it shouldn't have gotten so dark so quickly, and what struck me as odd was that there were no stars out, and it had suddenly turned freezing cold so I hurried about the garden to collect my things.

I then saw old Mrs Figg walking back down the street, escorting Harry and Dudley, the latter being half dragged down the road by Harry. I heard her shouting about how someone had left them to deal with a load of cauldrons, broomsticks and something called dementors. I always thought that old Mrs Figg was a bit demented with all of those cats she had and the slippers she wore everywhere but I thought it was a bit strange to hear her admitting it out loud to the Potter and Dursley boys.

Maybe she was demented, maybe she was a witch practising magic and eating toads and stuff. That thought creeped me out, but not as much as the thought that the potter boy seemed to know exactly what she was talking about. Maybe some of their black magic had gone wrong when they tried to use Dudley as their guinea-pig. It would explain why he was in that sort of state. Harry probably thought that by taking out one of the biggest bully's in the street that kids would be nicer to him, he never really mixed well with the other children. Probably for the best if they are going to end up like Dudley: half unconscious.

I watched the two boys get to the front door, and heard Petunia scream at the sight of her precious son, not that I blame her, I dread to think what my reaction would have been like if I saw my Jessica return home in that state. He at least had the decency to bring him home to his parents, whatever he had done to the boy.

I heard more shouting that night, and I don't blame them. Dudley had obviously told them what had happened to him. Mr Dursley started shouting about having owls in the house, and about how he wanted to know what Harry had done to Dudley and how he wasn't going to tolerate any more. Then shouting at him to get out, well that was a bit extreme, but then I hadn't actually heard what he had done to Dudley, and was probably scared that the same thing would happen to them. I don't know what I would have done in that situation.

The words that I most clearly recall from that night was; "remember my last, Petunia." Well I had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but it wasn't any voice I recognised, and it seemed to have some sort of effect because they were then shouting for the Potter boy to do as he's told and go to his room.

I hadn't seen the Potter boy around for a while, but a few days after the incident, I saw the Dursleys (minus Harry) all dressed up nicely, and boasting loudly that they had won an All-England Best Kept Suburban Lawn Competition, which I thought was highly unlikely looking at their lawn and I had never even heard of it before.

While they were gone there was a strange commotion in their house. I saw several people land in the back garden carrying what looked like broomsticks. I thought that I had been out in the sun too long! There had to be at least 9 of them, and the most prominent among them was the woman with fluorescent pink hair.

I saw them pick the lock on the back door with those strange looking sticks that I had often seen the potter boy carrying. Probably some sort of special pen-knife or talisman I had guessed, another reason not to intervene.

I was in half mind to call the police about the break in, but then they didn't look like burglars, although they were being far too loud and I even heard one of them break something in there. I heard the crashing noise.

The next thing I saw was them heading back out of the house, with an extra broom suspended by nothing. Although it was very dark so I could have been mistaken, they could not have been burglars because they didn't have anywhere to hide any stuff that they had taken. And I saw them take off into the air. I must have dozed off or been dreaming or something.

All I know is that the next day, the Dursleys were angry because the competition had not existed in the first place, as I well suspected, and the potter boy had disappeared during the night. I thought that he must have sent them the letter himself as a joke to get them out of the house, while he made a run for it, and made them look completely stupid at the same time. I wouldn't have taken him back next time, especially if he's going to be turning them into toads or something.

Over the year was a lot different to other years. Something seemed to have knocked a bit of sense into Dudley, and he was so much nicer for it. He seemed to be trying to make up for all the years of bullying people. The other day he even helped me inside with all my heavy groceries! Where before he would have either sat there and laughed at me struggling, or he would have stolen it and thrown it across the road like I remember him doing once!

We didn't see the Potter boy until summer once again, and as he got out of the car Mr Dursley was ranting about how he wasn't going to tolerate any more of his type threatening him or his family again. The boy just solemnly took his tirade and didn't fight back like he normally would; he seemed kind of, lost. It's strange how both boys have changed so dramatically so suddenly.

Lots of bad stuff had been going on during that time, the Brockdale Bridge in London, had apparently snapped in half randomly, and killed lots of people. As far as she could tell from the news, no one knew why it had happened. There were a couple of nasty murders as well, a woman had been murdered in her home, which was locked from the inside. The experts had said that there was no known cause, she was healthy in all aspects apart from the fact she was dead. There was great concerns that a new disease had cropped up, and how they were ever going to fight it if it spread.

There was also that random hurricane that swept through a village somewhere. There was something really strange going on in the country at that time, and things never seemed to be looking up at all. I remember taking a trip to London once, and it was just so foggy and depressing for the middle of summer I just had to come back home.

The other strange thing that occurred in the Dursley household, was the appearance of a strange looking man. I first noticed it when the streetlight outside my house turned itself off, and I glanced out and got a glimpse of the elderly gentleman, with peculiar clothing, and the longest white beard I have ever seen in my life. I got another glimpse of him as the light from the Dursley front door opened, illuminating the man.

After a while, the lights came back on, and I heard talking. i got up to see what the commotion was and to tell them to keep the noise down, when I saw the gentleman escorting the potter boy away. I was completely baffled as to why it was just that man, and not a whole escort. I mean, I've heard what's gone on in that house over the years, and I wouldn't trust the boy not to do something nasty. The old man must have known him very well and would have known that he would not do anything to him.

**A/N: so what do you think? **

**the next and final section to come is the Deathly Hallows and a little bit beyond :) **


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry potter. **

**This is the final chapter of this story, unless I can think of a way to continue it, I've really enjoyed writing this sort of thing :)**

**anyway, here it is: **

Interview with a neighbour part 3

The next summer, as usual, strange activities were occurring at number 4. The Dursleys appeared to be going away somewhere, because Mr Dursley was continually packing and repacking the car up. The worst time was when I nearly had to call an ambulance because Dudley had added his weights to his bag. I was alerted by the crashing and clunking noise, followed by copious and excessive swearing. I rushed out to see if he was alright and watched Petunia escorting him back inside and shouting for Dudley and Harry to unload the car again.

This was followed by more arguments and a couple of strange looking people came to visit. One of them I recognised because he was the one that took Harry away from the house after he decided to put explosives in the fireplace.

Shortly after this, another strange couple came to visit the house. They appeared completely out of nowhere and I must say they did look a strange sight, particularly the man with the mauve coloured top hat bowing as Harry opened the door. He must have been one of his friends from that St Brutus place, because they seemed to know each other and the fellow was obviously more than a little touched in the head.

After a few moments, the couple left with the Dursleys in their car, and I wasn't to see any of the Dursleys for almost an entire year. It was strange, because Harry did not leave with them, and they didn't take any of their furniture or anything with them. I presume that the Potter boy got his friends from the criminal school to take the Dursleys away so that he could have the house all to himself. The criminal school was always a bad place to send him, where criminal children could make friends and share ideas and stories about things they had done, and now look! He kicked the Dursleys out of their own house and didn't even have the decency to stay in there.

I don't know if it has any relevance to the Potter boy, but I was drawn to the window by the sounds of a roaring motorbike, followed by flashes in the sky. At first I thought that there was a storm brewing, and that there was going to be thunder and lightning, but it wasn't.

There was a series of multi-coloured lights, which could only be described as fireworks. I usually like fireworks, but there was something not quite right about these ones. They didn't seem to be originating from the ground at all, and appeared to be single threads of light, rather than a series of bursts like normal fireworks. They looked fairly sinister, and for some reason I began to feel incredibly cold. I had to go and put my jumper on, and this being the end of July!

The strangest and scariest things of all though, was that a week or two later, a large group of people wearing thick black hooded cloaks came to the house and broke in. I felt like I should be calling the police or something, but I actually could not move until they came back out of the house, where everything inside me was screaming at me to move away from the window, shut the curtains and lock the door.

They came only a couple of times, and i still wonder what that was all about. I always wondered if these men in cloaks had anything to do with the amount of weird deaths and disappearances that had been going on all up and down the country. There was also mentioned in the newspaper that the amount of people on the streets had risen dramatically over the past couple of weeks, and many people like me assumed that it was because of the rising prices of houses, and lots of poor people being unable to buy themselves a house.

All the same, I did feel uneasy whenever Jessica-Ann went into the town with her friends, and invoked a strict time that she should be in by whenever and wherever she went, and I made sure that she never went alone. There was no telling what all these homeless people would do to a young girl in their desperation!

There were a series of incidents over the year that I recall. There was a massive explosion in some little village near Wales, people disappearing and dying, and another explosion somewhere down in Cornwall. It seemed to be always cold and foggy again, and at first I thought that it had something to do with the coming winter, only it never went away.

Of all the strange things of that year, possibly the strangest was that several people, including Mrs Lea at number 8, claim to have seen a dragon pass over the country. Well, I did not believe that at all, it was just a hoax, like the Loch Ness monster and all that, but it was strange to have so many people who claimed to have seen it, although it's all been proven wrong now, and they won't even acknowledge that they saw it anymore. They simply refuse to even remember! I swear all that fog and lack of decent fresh air must have gone to their heads a little bit. **(1)**

Although the strangeness didn't stop there; the next day, there were strangely dressed people in town, and they all seemed to be celebrating something. I must have been some silly get together or stunt or something. They were all there shouting about how some great battle had been won, and that now everyone was free to live their lives how they liked and how they were free to celebrate! I would have agreed with them as long as they didn't come down Privet Drive dressed like that and shouting out those sorts of things!

Although something about this triggered my memory, which is not as good as it used to be, and I remember that time, exactly the same as this, where there were people dressed strangely, and owls flying around. If I remember correctly, the day after that was the day that the Potter boy arrived at the Dursley house as just a baby!

Sure enough, when I got back home, the Dursleys were there, unpacking their belongings from a car that was not their own, they looked tired but cheerful to be back. I offered to help them take their things back to the house but was politely declined, by Dudley saying that he was more than capable of doing it himself, in their time away he had indeed got even more muscle, and he boasted that it was all the weights he'd been lifting. He was being even more polite to me than normal!

Years later, I saw the Potter boy return to the house. Although he could not really be called a boy any longer! He left with a few packages of what I presume was his old stuff, and he even managed to shake Dudley's hand as he left, and said "Good afternoon" to me while I was sat in the front garden with weed clippers and a cup of tea!

He returned a couple of times, for Dudleys wedding, his wife Elizabeth looked stunning, and Dudley and Harry looked handsome stood together in their posh suits and I even got a glimpse of Harrys red-haired fiancée, and she looked beautiful as well. In turn, Dudley attended Harrys wedding, and I have seen a select few of the photographs from this occasion, which did indeed look like a fantastic celebration.

I got a few glimpses of their families, Harry came over when both of Dudleys Children were born, his eldest was called Caroline Petunia Dursley and his younger son, Jonathan Vernon Dursley. I even saw the three potter children when they came for their annual visit, and I enjoy watching the children get bigger and older everytime I see them.

It heartens me to see that even though the boys never got on in their childhood and teenage years that the rift between people, however great and for whatever reason, is not beyond healing. Although it is better to heal it sooner rather than later, because if not, then people like these and their children might never have truly got to know one another.

**A/N: So there it was. Please review this and tell me what you thought! Was it a good ending? I wasnt sure. **

**(1) The reason they cant remember is because once the battle of Hogwarts had been won, they went around and wiped all their memories. Mrs Oakley didn't have her memory wiped as she hadnt seen the dragon, and it was obvious that she didnt believe her fellow neighbours. **

**Thought I'd add that in as I wasnt sure if many people would pick up on that. :) **


	4. Question

Hello my beautiful loyal readers, both old and new :)

just a quick question here, I would like to do another of these kinds of stories, but should I do it? Would you guys be interested?

If I did, what kind of characters would you like to see:

Another random outsider, Muggle or Magic?

One of the Dursleys?

One of the Primary School Teachers?

One of the Marauders?

Just a few ideas, let me know what you think!

***I have decided on a new character to interview, please go to my profile page, where you will find the sequel to this story, called Interview With A Dursley* **


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